Results
1 Ker, Anthony 2361 9 15:W 10:W 11:W 4:W 3:W 2:L 5:W 7:W 16:W 9:W 2 Dive, Russell 2344 9 19:W 5:W 3:L 7:W 9:W 1:W 4:W 10:W 15:W 12:W 3 Nijman, Brian 1997 7.5 20:W 9:W 2:W 11:W 1:L 4:L 7:W 15:W 5:D 10:W 4 Nyberg, Michael 1976 6.5 16:W 7:W 10:W 1:L 15:W 3:W 2:L 11:W 0:D 5:L 5 Forster, Bill 1867 6.5 14:W 2:L 19:W 15:L 12:W 6:W 1:L 9:W 3:D 4:W 6 Stoeveken, Peter 1701 6 24:W 15:L 23:W 9:L 19:W 5:L 18:W 16:L 20:W 17:W 7 Farrington, Lawrence 1744 5.5 22:W 4:L 13:W 2:L 16:W 12:W 3:L 1:L 17:D 15:W 8 Sellen, Ian 1929 5.5 0:D 0:D 0:L 0:L 21:W 13:W 9:L 14:W 10:D 16:W 9 Aldridge, Alan 1769 5 18:W 3:L 17:W 6:W 2:L 11:L 8:W 5:L 13:W 1:L 10 Jackson, Ross 1929 5 13:W 1:L 4:L 21:W 17:W 15:D 11:W 2:L 8:D 3:L 11 Pomeroy, Arthur 1997 5 17:W 12:W 1:L 3:L 13:W 9:W 10:L 4:L 0:D 0:D 12 Brockway, Andrew 1749 5 21:W 11:L 16:D 14:W 5:L 7:L 19:D 20:W 18:W 2:L 13 Whittle, Jonathon 1552 5 10:L 24:W 7:L 20:W 11:L 8:L 21:W 22:W 9:L 19:W 14 Marney, John 1442 5 5:L 19:L 22:W 12:L 24:W 20:L 0:W 8:L 21:W 23:W 15 Jhurani, Anil 1656 4.5 1:L 6:W 18:W 5:W 4:L 10:D 16:W 3:L 2:L 7:L 16 Capper, David 1572 4.5 4:L 22:W 12:D 18:W 7:L 17:W 15:L 6:W 1:L 8:L 17 Kay, Bruce 1594 4.5 11:L 21:W 9:L 23:W 10:L 16:L 22:W 19:W 7:D 6:L 18 Theodosiou, Andreas 1385 4.5 9:L 20:W 15:L 16:L 23:W 19:D 6:L 0:W 12:L 24:W 19 Rabina, Romeo 1622 4 2:L 14:W 5:L 24:W 6:L 18:D 12:D 17:L 22:W 13:L 20 Veldhuizen, Matt 1603 4 3:L 18:L 21:L 13:L 22:W 14:W 24:W 12:L 6:L 0:W 21 Proctor, Matthew 1169 3 12:L 17:L 20:W 10:L 8:L 0:W 13:L 24:W 14:L 22:L 22 Sampathkumar, Shyamkumar 2.5 7:L 16:L 14:L 0:D 20:L 24:W 17:L 13:L 19:L 21:W 23 Ranson, Bryce 2 0:D 0:D 6:L 17:L 18:L 0:L 0:L 0:L 24:W 14:L 24 Sknar, Andrew 1 6:L 13:L 0:W 19:L 14:L 22:L 20:L 21:L 23:L 18:L
Reports
Rounds 9 and 10
There was only one mild scare for the Ker-Dive duopoly as they strode majestically to the finishing line hand in hand (sorry about that imagery). David Capper as black had a nice French (I think) position (edit: David reports in was actually a c3 Sicilian) against Anthony until very late in the round 9 proceedings, I didn't see what happened but something went wrong, despite Russell's attempts to beam positive karma at David. Russell accounted for Jhurani and Brockway (the latter putting up pretty decent resistance), and in the final round Alan Aldridge tried a rather passive anti-Pirc system against Anthony, which succumbed routinely to a standard thematic queenside attack.
Brian Nijman was a worthy 3rd, beating Ross Jackson in a nice game in the last round and drawing with yours truly before that. This latter game featured a ridiculous rook and pawn ending in which first Brian and then I squandered winning chances. Andrew Brockway in particular enjoyed the spectacle of my endgame incompetence in time pressure, pointing out that this was come-uppance given the fun I have had at his expense in this forum (see previous round reports). In the last round I caught Nyberg (to share 4th place) after a rather unfortunate opening experiment from him let me play the white side of a Sicilian with an extra tempo. Michael missed the 9th round, he has been returning from an Auckland training course for Tuesday night chess, but the flights didn't work out this week (maybe he flew Jetstar).
Some other games; Kay-Farrington saw an exchange of blunders and a draw. Kay-Stoevenken saw Bruce losing on time in a drawn position. Marney-Proctor resumed their rivalry from the Autumn Cup with an exciting slugfest, Matt looked as if he was going to land a fatal blow but fell short. Jonathon Whittle pulled off a nice mate in 4 against Romeo Rabina. Farrington-Jhurani saw Anil resigning rather than playing out an ending 3 pawns down (hey Anil in our game I was three pawns up, I wish you'd resigned rather than playing on and winning on time!). Finally, the last act of the last round saw Ian Sellen prevailing over David Capper with a gorgeous mating finish.
Rounds 7 and 8
Once again I didn't see anything of round 7, being last to finish. I'll bore you with some details of my game v Anthony, since it was quite interesting. On a whim I played the Caro-Kann, an opening I don't play. I know this is totally crazy. Nevertheless, it turns out that after Anthony's usual Panov Botvinnik, we played normal chess for 10 moves and reached a standard IQP Tabiya that can actually be reached in numerous ways, most commonly from a QGD actually. I hate playing these sort of positions with either colour. So why did I play the Caro-Kann again ? I've forgotten. At this point I made a tactical mistake (one that's been made by dozens of others as it happens), playing ...b6 losing a pawn to a Bxh7+ Kxh7; Qc2+ Kg8; QxNc6 trick. Oh well, at least this mixed things up a little, without this Anthony had something he'd played a million times (in particular his c3 Sicilian often leads to IQP positions like this), White always gets a kingside attack, and against a weaker player Anthony tends to win these things in his sleep. As it happened I got some undeserved compensation, and a complex battle ensued. I got to triple on the c file and Anthony's kingside play was a little slow due to his temporarily offside queen. On my 28th move Rybka gives me 1.32 pawns worth of comp, i.e. had me ahead. But only for that half move because of a tactic I didn't see. You know how this story ends, Anthony co-ordinated his kingside play, forced liquidation to an ending, picking a second pawn up along the way, regulation endgame win ensued. The only other game I saw anything of was Jackson-Pomeroy next to me, where Art spoiled a nice position in time trouble. Brian demonstrated an interesting ending from Nijman-Farrington. From a competitive viewpoint, Dive and Ker are neck and neck. Can anyone get a result against either of them ? In this round I failed against Anthony and Nyberg was Russell's victim, but I know nothing of what happened.
I saw a little more of round 8, after a rather attractive English crush over Alan Aldridge (if I may say so myself). At the top Anthony took care of business with Lawrence, Ross did well against Russell's English, but took a wrong option and spoiled his position. Pomeroy-Nyberg completed a bad night for the professor, after a bad start he apparently got back into the game with a counterattack, but Borg's king slipped away and ended up decisively strengthening his attack. Once again an entertaining Andrew Brockway ending was last to finish and drew an appreciative crowd. Matt Veldhuizen became a little flustered in time trouble and gave Andrew the opportunity to make something out of nothing. At one stage there was a comedy of errors whereby Matt left a bishop en-prise but Andrew neglected to take it. Naturally Lawrence disgraced himself with manic cackling at this point but fortunately neither player seemed to notice. In the end the game ended somewhat farcically with Matt resigning in an apparently drawn position (2 extra connected passed pawns for Andrew but the only pieces left were opposite bishops, and with the pawns securely blockaded it wasn't apparent how Andrew could make the remote passed pawn he needed).
My apologies for not reporting on more games (sometimes I forget my responsibilities as a chess journalist :-). If anyone wants to email me game reports, I am happy to edit them it. And of course I continue to apologise for not providing any replayable chess on the site. Have patience I'll get there eventually.
Rounds 5 and 6
I didn't see anything of round 5, being basically the last to finish. The top board clash was between Ker and Nijman, both on 100% and Anthony prevailed. If anyone wants to email me a description of this game (or any other) I'll edit in their contribution. By contrast I was first to finish in round 6. (I was lucky, I thought my cowboy attack was running out of steam. As white I was attacking a king on g8 with a Pg7 and Bh6 and only after hopefully plonking my queen on d6 did I realise that Qf8+ is a very big threat). So I had time to kibitz the inevitable Dive-Ker top board clash (it usually happens before round 6).
Russell had a nice pair of extra centre pawns on d4 and e4 but this was clearly not nearly enough comp for Anthony's extra piece. Later I learned Russell had missed a tactic earlier. The game continued in predictable fashion. Anthony consolidated, sought to dissolve Russell's centre, and threatened to turn his unopposed extra bishop into a crazed monster. Russell desperately tried to turn his central control into something more tangible before Anthony succeeded in his goals. This took time on the clock, and Anthony's always skilful defence made it a tough ask. Dive fans were grimacing when Russell ran down to increment only time, just as his centre collapsed, and he had to give up an exchange, leaving him a whole rook behind without much to show for it. However, the game continued, Russell making a mockery of my theory that it is more or less impossible to play with only 5 seconds of increment time. Suddenly Russell started playing instantaneously. Maybe he was a late convert to my "play instantaneously for a while and build a time buffer" theory ? No, he'd spotted a tactic coming at the end of a series of exchanges. Anthony slumped in his chair at the end of the sequence, like me he didn't see the point until Russell actually took his queen off the board. The tactic doesn't really have a name, basically a simple check, where the checking piece (a rook in this case) discovers an attack by a different piece (a queen in this case) on an unprotected enemy piece (Anthony's queen). Actually I suppose you call it simply a discovered attack. Anyway, mate followed soon after. Basically a great comeback from a hopeless position to keep the tournament alive.
In other games, Nijman had nice pressure against Nyberg, but then missed two simple tactics in a row. Dropping a (big) pawn was bad, following it with a rook was much worse. This win puts Michael into a three way tie for first (I'll leave figuring out the other two usual suspects as an exercise for the reader). Pomeroy v Aldridge saw Al inventing a new defence to the Giucco Piano, but apparently it was not a great innovation, and ended up costing Al a piece for minimal compensation. Ross Jackson was also a piece up against Anil Jhurani, but he blundered it away and the players reluctantly agreed a draw one move before bare kings. Ian Sellen beat Jonathan Whittle with mate in the middle game. Farrington v Brockway was last to finish, and entertained a big crowd. For a while Andrew did well, outplaying Lawrence in a rook and pawn ending even though Lawrence had time and he didn't. But he missed the critical idea (white pawn on a7, rook on a8; black rook on a1, king on d6 - black has a pair of connected pawns that should win if he keeps the a7 pawn under control - but first he must play ...Kc7! c7 is one of only a few good squares on the board for Black's king in this standard pattern
- most squares allow a fatal rook check and some other 7th rank squares allow Rh8 and then the skewer Rh7+ after ...Rxa7). Edit: I've fixed this description, earlier I used a kind of mirror image notation for some reason. So Lawrence queened his pawn and it turned into a K+2 vs K+R battle where Andrew perhaps didn't make the most of his drawing chances. Lawrence was gracious in victory, choosing not to break out his trademark crazed cackling laughter move on this occasion at least.
Rounds 3 and 4
Ker again won two nice games, from Pomeroy and Nyberg. Brian Nijman also has a perfect score, with an impressive win from Dive and then a pragmatic win from Pomeroy. I only saw the finish of the Dive game, Brian had an impressive attack and a significant material advantage (exchange and a pawn or two) but we were still in the middle game and both players were running on fumes only on the clock. So anything could happen, but BN showed impressive sangfroid in simultaneously warding off Dive's counterplay and focusing his own attack decisively, then liquidating to a trivially winning endgame. Art Pomeroy emailed this quick summary of Brian's other game; 'I decided to look for a mate, rather than take the exchange and liquidate to a winning ending. Unfortunately, while looking my time ran out.' That's why I used the word pragmatic. It's pretty clear that for most players allowing the clock to approach zero with only a 5 second increment is fatal unless they've reached a position where they can just push a pawn through and mate with a queen against nothing much. So far I've seen only Nijman and Dive play reasonable chess with their heads just above water. For most it is imperative to play some instantaneous moves to build a buffer, and that's rarely possible without an overwhelming position. I failed to take my own advice in my second game v Jhurani and forgot about the clock for just a few seconds, losing in Pomeroyesque fashion despite being in an ending with three extra pawns. Against Rabina in round 3, I was the benefactor of the same syndrome, Romeo losing on time in a good position. The only other game I saw this week was Dive' s second game against Farrington, in which Lawrence played the role of unfortunate victim as Russell took frightful revenge for his previous setback, the game ending with a nice sacrificial mating attack.
Rounds 1 and 2
Just a few quick impressions this week; The favourites got out of the blocks well. Ker had two nice crushes; White versus Jhurani saw Anil resigning before a single piece was swapped as he was about to be pushed off the board. Black versus Jackson was perhaps even more impressive as a strong player was deprived of all control as white, and again pushed off the board with little material exchanged. Dive took down Rabina quite quickly, then your reporter as I foolishly decided it would be cool to take an unusual opportunity to plant both knights deep in Russell's position. It was cool in a fatal kind of way as one of them duly dropped off. Nijman continued his good form, positionally outplaying first Matt Veldhuizen then Alan Aldridge, simple effective chess from Brian. Art Pomeroy made a welcome return and posted two wins, although Andrew Brockway gave him plenty to think about (this was a case of the equalising injustice of chess as Matt Proctor had Andrew on toast in the first game only to blow it with a patzer sees check patzer gives check faux pas). Kay v Pomeroy was a nice thematic Kings Indian win, Bruce had the c file, but no entry points, Arthur had everything else. Unfortunately the game ended slightly prematurely, Bruce trying to reuse his technique of playing with nothing but the increment. Possible with 30 seconds, but with 5 it is mandatory to build a time buffer. Nyberg was the other player to post two wins, mating first David Capper (welcome back David), then Lawrence Farrington in a game where Lawrence had chances for a while. A warm welcome to young and enthusiastic Shyamkumar Sampathkumar who played the first two of hopefully many competitive games at Wellington.